“When people ask me what kind of language Creole is, I say that it’s a vulgar version of French,” the girl on the beach explained. We scanned her features for tell-tale signs that she might be pulling our leg. But her expression was earnest, as if she honestly believed that an entire language – her own – could be vulgar. Nodding, her friends backed her up. Creole, they said, is an uncivilised language. A rough and wild way to talk, supposedly.

Reality check: Words can be vulgar. Sentences, even more so. But an entire language? There is no way. In every language, from Urdu and Finnish to French, any person can be vulgar, sophisticated, polite or rude. Even if we were speaking Latin, supposedly the world’s most intellectual language, we would sound vulgar if we told the bodybuilder on the beach in explicit terms what we would like him to do with his gluteus maximus (especially if we didn’t offer to take him out to dinner first). So, where does this notion come from, the misconception that some languages are supposedly superior to others?

Unfortunately, too many Mauritians still walk around despising the only language that they can master perfectly – their native language, Creole. International Mother Language Day celebrated on Tuesday was an opportunity to reflect on our linguistic self-hatred. Because, boy, that hatred holds us back. 

It’s the reason why so many Mauritian parents systematically speak nothing but their own flawed versions of foreign languages (French or English) to their children. And so, their children grow up speaking flawed, Mauritian-style versions of Molière’s and Shakespeare’s languages instead of flawless Creole. Is it really fair to put a person in a position where he cannot speak any language at all perfectly, courtesy of his parent’s misguided impression that their native tongue wasn’t good enough?

The argument that it’s important for Mauritian kids to learn French and English since they will need it in the world of business later in life isn’t a valid reason not to teach them Creole. It’s the equivalent of saying that only coded messages should be used in the family home, since the kids need to learn math. The truth is that mastering Creole has never prevented anyone from learning English or French. On the contrary, it gives us a foundation to build on. 

We need to kill the popular myth that Creole is supposedly inferior to other mother tongues. The idea of using languages as status symbols actually defeats their very raison d'être. They are tools of communication – not weapons of division.  

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